How to Make a Sturdy Camera Strap for $7 Using Parachute Cord

Eddie had a hard time finding a camera strap he liked, so he decided to make his own in the style of some rifle slings he found online. The slings were weaved together using 550 Paracord (parachute cord), which has a breaking weight of 550 pounds. He found some for sale for $7 at his local army-navy store, and weaved together his own rugged DIY camera strap.

Eddie tells us,

Paracord can be found at any Army Navy store or online for around $7.00 for 50 feet. I found a simple braid pattern online. It only took about 30 minutes to weave the strap onto two carabiners taped to 2 A-clamps spaced the desired length apart. When I was done I removed the carabiners and ran two lengths of paracord through the camera strap mounts and through the loops of the strap and tied them. I didn’t want to use any metal parts on the strap that would potentially scratch the camera while it was in a bag.

Here’s the how-to he used for weaving the cord, which he found in the June 2009 issue of Field & Stream magazine:

You can give your strap additional width for extra comfort. A bonus of using this strap is that the continuous 40 feet of cord can be unraveled if you ever need it in an emergency situation — something that may come in handy if you’re an extreme outdoor shooter.

Image credits: Photographs by Eddie and used with permission